[Inferno]

As I live in Montreal Quebec where even the paper books of popular fiction (romance, fantasy, scifi, mystery etc) are very sparse and I am also agoraphobic to the point of panic attacks even when going to the grocery store (pain in the butt ... lol) Overdrive has finally opened up a library option to me.

I stopped using the brick and mortar libraries here when I could only find two or three books by my favorite authors, and those were not available without putting in a hold (not even current books at the time).

My experience in Toronto was much different as I could order a hold delivered the the branch nearest me from any of the libraries in the system. I'm sure the French speaking patrons found themselves as frustrated as I find myself here in Montreal. Perhaps with a library system that has a lot of funding and that was already moving towards meeting the varied needs of it's patrons Overdrive is superfluous. For those of us like myself, Overdrive is my only library alternative. It is very nice to be able to borrow an audiobook or ebook in English without having to pay non-resident fees.

I feel that libraries which meet the multiple needs of their communities will flourish. Perhaps more "special attention" collections such as the Toronto Public Library's Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy will help keep people going.

If ebook publishers made it easier for the smaller local libraries to be able to afford their own collections perhaps it would be different.

For smaller communities Overdrive is a good alternative. What would be even better would be a global or at least country wide service.

Overdrive is like a 24 hour bookmobile that we connect to at our leisure.